MEng Chemical Engineering / Course details

The use of energy to produce products is fundamental in the chemical process industries. Energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal are becoming increasingly costly, and also lead to environmental problems. Minimising the use of external heating and cooling sources and making the most efficient use of available energy is a cornerstone in the design of chemical processes.

This unit will briefly examine the various types of heat exchanger devices available to transfer heat between streams in chemical processes, and evaluate factors that contribute to the overall specification and design of these heat exchange devices, including heat transfer coefficients, pressure drops, and temperature differences.

The unit will also evaluate opportunities to minimise and target energy use prior to the detailed design of the energy exchange (or heat exchanger) network. Such targets can be used to scope and screen many design options quickly and effectively without having to carry out the designs. Methodologies, including the well established Pinch Analysis, are developed and evaluated for both new design and retrofit (existing design) scenarios. Once design options have been chosen using targets (both energy and capital), then systematic procedures allow the targets to be achieved in practice. The external heating and cooling requirements of the chemical process can also be evaluated and included in this design. The use and design of fired heaters in providing external heating to chemical processes will be considered in some detail.